follow lisa is cooking

I have a little problem. I'm addicted to cookbooks, food writing, recipe collecting, and cooking. I have a lot of recipes waiting for me to try them, and ideas from articles, tv, and restaurants often lead to new dishes. I started losing track of what I've done. So now I'm taking photos and writing about what I've prepared—unless it's terrible in which case I forget it ever happened.

subscribe to

subscribe via email

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

What is this? Well, this is a new feature that will appear from time to time here on lisa is cooking. I’ve been open about my obsession with books and food publications, and I thought it might be fun to ask around and find out what other people are reading. I want to know what people have read lately that was interesting or inspiring. So instead of asking what’s your favorite book ever, I’m asking what are you reading?

Last Saturday, I attended a food blogger workshop here in Austin which was organized by Babette Pepaj and Jaden Hair and co-produced by Natanya Anderson. The talks and presentations at the workshop were very informative, and it was a great opportunity to meet some fellow bloggers while learning new things. I cooked up the idea for this new feature over the weekend and since I’d just met Jaden, I wanted to ask this question of her first. Although Jaden requires no introduction, I’ll go ahead and mention that she’s the award-winning food blogger behind Steamy Kitchen, appears twice a month on the Daytime Show, and is a columnist for Discovery’s TLC and for Tampa Tribune. Her book is The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook. So, with no further ado, Jaden Hair, what are you reading?

Jaden: The book I'm currently reading is Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuck. I was lucky enough to have met him in Austin on Monday, and he is every bit as energetic, passionate and caring in person as he is in his book. I actually bought his book via audible.com the day before I flew to South by Southwest and downloaded it to my iphone to listen to while driving. Even though it's not about cooking or food, Gary is a fellow blogger, social media expert, and he totally gets it about the future of small business, entrepreneurship, and marketing. I highly recommend it!

Thank you for participating, Jaden! Check back to see who answers the question next time and what other books are recommended.

I love this idea! It had me thinking though, about an email conversation I've been having with my sister. She claims that marketing research shows two types of people in the world - those who don't read except when forced to (like a technical manual) and those who read anything (including the cereal box). I wonder which arena cookbooks and blogs fall into ;-)

Love the new feature - what a great way to get inspired with new ideas. Although following your blog, and trying to keep up with all the incredible recipes you feature and the books, I may have a though time with this, but oh the inspiration.